Can global warming affect tropical ocean heat transport?

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (22) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilco Hazeleger
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold Taylor

Despite global warming, a region of the North Atlantic has been observed to cool, a phenomenon known as theáNorth Atlantic Warming Holeá(NAWH). The causes of the NAWH remain under debate but its emergence has been linked to a slowdown of the meridional circulation leading to a reduced ocean heat transport into the warming hole region. This note uses previously published evidence to suggest that the pattern of temperature change is not unique but may have been a recurring feature during the last century and a half, fluctuating between a positive and negative phase. It appears global warming has amplified one of these phases in the North Atlantic climate.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (16) ◽  
pp. 6503-6515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Huang

Abstract The seasonal changes in tropical SST under global warming are investigated based on the representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) and historical runs in 31 models from phase 5 of CMIP (CMIP5). The tropical SST changes show three pronounced seasonal patterns: the peak locking to the equator throughout the year and the weaker equatorial changes and stronger hemispheric asymmetric changes (HACs) in boreal autumn. The magnitude of the seasonal patterns is comparable to the tropical-mean warming and the annual-mean patterns, implying great impacts on global climate changes. The peak locking to the equator is a result of the equatorial locking of the minimum damping of climatological latent heat flux and the ocean heat transport changes. Excluding the role of ocean heat transport suggested in previous studies, the weaker equatorial warming in boreal autumn is contributed by stronger evaporation damping as a result of stronger climatological evaporation and increased surface wind speed. The seasonal variations of the HAC are driven by the variations of the damping effect of climatological evaporation. In boreal summer, the damping effect of climatological evaporation, which is greater in the Southern Hemisphere, promotes the development of the HAC. Consequently, the HAC peaks in boreal autumn when the damping effect of climatological evaporation transforms to a reverse meridional pattern, which is greater in the Northern Hemisphere. The wind–evaporation–SST feedback, as the key process of the annual-mean HAC, amplifies the seasonal variations of the HAC in tropical SST.


2021 ◽  
Vol 568 ◽  
pp. 117033
Author(s):  
Emily R. Newsom ◽  
Andrew F. Thompson ◽  
Jess F. Adkins ◽  
Eric D. Galbraith

1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 785-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric J. Barron ◽  
William H. Peterson ◽  
David Pollard ◽  
Starley Thompson

2005 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 662-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
CELINE HERWEIJER ◽  
RICHARD SEAGER ◽  
MICHAEL WINTON ◽  
AMY CLEMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 689-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Årthun ◽  
Tor Eldevik

Abstract A potential for climate predictability is rooted in anomalous ocean heat transport and its consequent influence on the atmosphere above. Here the propagation, drivers, and atmospheric impact of heat anomalies within the northernmost limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation are assessed using a multicentury climate model simulation. Consistent with observation-based inferences, simulated heat anomalies propagate from the eastern subpolar North Atlantic into and through the Nordic seas. The dominant time scale of associated climate variability in the northern seas is 14 years, including that of observed sea surface temperature and modeled ocean heat content, air–sea heat flux, and surface air temperature. A heat budget analysis reveals that simulated ocean heat content anomalies are driven by poleward ocean heat transport, primarily related to variable volume transport. The ocean’s influence on the atmosphere, and hence regional climate, is manifested in the model by anomalous ocean heat convergence driving subsequent changes in surface heat fluxes and surface air temperature. The documented northward propagation of thermohaline anomalies in the northern seas and their consequent imprint on the regional atmosphere—including the existence of a common decadal time scale of variability—detail a key aspect of eventual climate predictability.


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